What are your best security violation stories (Misplaced weapon, Lost badge, Lost key loader, etc)?

I knew a CWO who used to wander around the SCIF with Saddam Hussein's picture on his badge just to see who was paying attention.

Back in my instructor days while taking some students on a leisurely combat patrol through Camp Bullis, during recovery ops after an ambush by OPFOR, a young troop came up to me and innocently asked "what should I do with this sir?" In said troops hands was the sorriest looking M-60 that I have ever had the misfortune of seeing. Picture if you will the beloved PIG covered in leaves, dirt, and some reddish orange substance. My brain, unable to fully process the horror in front of me, unleashed a tirade of expletive laden questions trying to get the root of how this could have been accomplished in the few moments they had been out of my sight. Once I had fully expressed my displeasure and bewilderment, in a completely respectful and professional manner, I was informed that this weapon did not belong to my squad...

This of course brought up a completely different set of issues and Air Force "answers". First we verified, via radio transmission (before the wide spread use of cell phones), that none of the other squads were missing a weapon. Of course while accountability was going on I decided to check out the weapon, CATM troop that I am. The reddish brown substance, was rust, so much in fact that we could not open the weapon to clear it out. Did I mention that it had an ammo belt still attached? Step two serial number check, weapon isn't on our books. That should be a good thing right? Nope 100% hands on serial number inventory of ALL weapons, which required recalling two 144 pax flights from field training and two 144 pax flights from range training. Surprisingly enough the PIG still did not belong to us, nor had it replaced any other weapons in our inventory.

That's the fun part of the story, after many phone calls we were able to determine that the weapon belonged to one of the local Army National Guard armories. Who it turns out had not accomplished an inventory after their last field training, 6 months prior.

Many times a lost weapon leads to the loss of rank, job opportunities or even worse. Sometimes leaders should exercise tactical patience when dealing with situations as was done with Colin Powell when he was a very young LT. I encourage you to take a few moments to read this short excerpt about one of our most important recent leaders of our military history. He lost his .45 and goes on to talk about how today there would be an investigation, called in lawyers and there would be a fatal black mark on his record....for those not so familiar with General Colin Powell, I encourage you to spend three minutes for the read - great read and perspectives!

http://www.3ad.com/history/cold.war/feature.pages/powell.htm